Bethel Park female to kick at Grove City College

On National Letter of Intent Day, many local football players made their commitments known and accepted scholarship offers to the college of their choice. Few, if any, happened to be female, except save Kelsey Tischler. The Bethel Park senior will continue her playing career and education at Grove City College. She will kick for the Wolverines.
When Hawks’ head coach Jeff Metheny approached the Wolverines’ coaching staff, which is headed up by former South Fayette standout Andrew DiDonato, Tischler said that Grove City loved the idea. “They were open to it. If she can kick, then she can play.”
That’s what Metheny said when Tischler approached him about kicking for the Hawks this past season. Incredulous at first, Metheny asked ‘You want to play football?’ and then reminded her that she would have to kick in the cold, rain and snow. “We live in America,” Metheny reminded Tischler. “You can do whatever you want.”
Metheny handed Tischler a bag of balls. “And the tees I needed,” she said.
Then she went to work. Every morning at 6 a.m. Tischler arrived at the stadium. During the winter months, she had to shovel the snow off the field before she practiced. Often, Francesca Galietta accompanied Tischler as she kicked. “She’s my best friend,” Tischler said of Galietta, who will attend Ohio State University next fall. “She grew up in a soccer family, but did not like the sport.”
Tischler, on the other hand, loved the sport, once. She played through her junior year of high school before switching over to football. “Whenever I choose to do something that I have a passion for, I go all out and I am willing to work at it, but I lost my passion for soccer,” said Tischler, a central back that could ‘kick the ball hard and far.’
When she attended high school football games on Friday nights, she paid attention to the kickers. After watching Matt Monti kick, Tischler decided she could do that, too. “You never really know what you are capable of doing until you try and if you are willing to work and give it 100 percent,” she said. “It was a risk I was willing to take.”
In addition to getting assistance from Galietta, several of her eventual teammates helped her chase footballs. “Almost all of them at one point or another,” she said. “Anytime I needed, they helped me shag balls. Mostly, they liked the idea (of me playing football). They have been really good teammates and friends.”
And Tischler was really good for the Black Hawks, who finished 7-4 overall and reached the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Quad-A playoffs. She converted 36 extra points and kicked three field goals for 45 total points. Her longest field goal measured 33 yards and occurred in a 28-23 loss to Woodland Hills at the Wolvarena in Turtle Creek.
“As a kicker, she handles the pressure well and is accurate,” emphasized Metheny. “Kelsey is an awesome kid, smart and a great teammate. She is also an extremely hard-working young woman.”
Tischler, indeed, worked for her position and her scholarship. Her training routine not only included her early morning kicking sessions in all kinds of weather but entailed weight-room workouts, hill climbs and distance running, a cinch, however, due to her soccer background as well as her cross country and track history.
To kick at the collegiate level, however, Tischler must up her game. According to Metheny, “She will need to improve her leg strength and leg speed.”
Tischler is prepared. She is aware that she has to improve and she’s willing to work. But how? “You hit the weight room,” she replied. “I don’t need to be huge. I just want to be strong.”
Academically, Tischler is strong. She maintains a 4.0 GPA and is enrolled in five advanced placement classes. The homecoming princess is a member of the National Honor Society and belongs to the Team Leadership Corporation.
“Kelsey is one of the best I have ever seen come out of Bethel Park,” said long-time guidance counselor Jim Knapp.
Andrew Tsangeris agreed. A coach the past 10 years at BP, he taught Tischler marketing when she was a freshman. “I’ve come across some pretty great kids,” said Tsangeris, who also teaches business education at Springdale Junior/Senior High School, “and she is on par with all of them. What separates her is her commitment to the community and her church where she spends her free time, when she has it,” he added. “I also don’t recall many kids who would give up a starting spot on a pretty good soccer team to try out for a sport that she had never played. She has a tremendous work ethic and is a great role model.”
Tischler is conscious of that aspect of her life, particularly when she is on the football field. “I try to do my best,” she said. “I am really aware of other girls, little girls, who want to be just like me. They all stare at me and I don’t want to let them down.”
Tischler also doesn’t want to let her future teammates down. She said that she wanted to go to Grove City College from the start. “Football or not,” she said. “The academics are good there,” explained the potential sports psychology major. “I’d like to work with athletes and I like the mental aspect of sports the most.
“When I told them I wanted to play, the loved the idea. To me, it’s all the same. I just happen to be a girl.”
NOTE: Five Bethel Park seniors signed national letters of intent last week and will continue to play football in college. Among them were: Levi Metheny, Albany; Sean Davis, St. Francis University; Charlie Davis, Chris Pauley and Brandon Johnson, all to play for Alderson Broaddus University in West Virginia.